Shuhei Yoshida on Vita’s Third-Party Troubles, SOCOM and More

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“We are having a more difficult time than we had anticipated” getting third parties on Vita.

By Colin Moriarty

In the September, 2012 issue (#62) of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, there’s a fascinating interview with Sony Worldwide Studio’s President Shuhei Yoshida (who happens to be a good friend of Podcast Beyond as well). In this interview, conducted by Roger Burchill, Yoshida talks a great deal about what his roster of first-party studios has cooking, as well as Sony’s continued (and unexpected) difficulties getting third-party support on PlayStation Vita. He even makes a reference to SOCOM’s future and some of the lessons Sony learned from PlayStation 3 as it moves forward with its still-unannounced next-generation console.

Yoshida notes that Sony is “very happy with the hardware and platform [they] created” with the PlayStation Vita. “It’s an amazing gaming experience,” he said. However, he also admits that “because of the growth of the social/mobile sector, lots of opportunities are being presented to publishers to choose from, and because the social/mobile side is the growing sector in terms of the business now, they are very quickly shifting their development resources to be part of that growing market.” As a result, Sony is “having a more difficult time than [they] had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that’s our job.”

According to Yoshida, part of Sony’s strength with Vita rests with its ability to “cater to smaller, independent developers” with both Vita and PlayStation Mobile alike. “It’s very easy to develop content on PS Vita. More content and more games is the number one priority that we have to realize Vita’s potential.”

Burchill also asked Yoshida something we asked him during E3 2012’s episode of Podcast Beyond: why hasn’t Sony yet purchased Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls developer Quantic Dream? He gave a similar answer to the one he provided us back in June. “When you look at our history of acquisitions, we never acquire developers we’ve never worked with. It’s part of our organic process that we work with independent developers to develop some new IPs and experiences and develop a trusting relationship.” So, “at some point the question is asked, ‘What if…?’ So that’s a natural organic process.”

The most tantalizing part? “I wouldn’t be surprised if conversations happen with such a creative talent like Quantic Dream. I’m not saying anything special here, but that’s our kind of pattern. We worked with [Sly Cooper and Infamous developer] Sucker Punch and [Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted developer] Naughty Dog and [Killzone developer] Guerilla Games and after a few titles, those conversations happen.”

The topic of Zipper Interactive’s closure earlier this year also came up. Zipper, of course, was Sony’s fully-owned studio behind the likes of SOCOM, MAG and Unit 13. Does their closure mean the once-famous SOCOM series is dead? “Is SOCOM done?” Yoshida wondered. “It’s not done. We never definitely retire any franchise. It’s sometimes great to have a fresh look at the classics that we have.” He brings up Sanzaru Games’ upcoming entry into the dormant Sly Cooper franchise as an example of this.

So what’s Sony taking away from the PlayStation 3 generation as it moves forward? Yoshida confirms that he won’t be “talking about next-gen,” but that “the PS3 is very difficult to makes games on. It is so picky and advanced in terms of architecture. We are game developers and we have a difficult time making games on it,” he admits. “The PS Vita was designed with this consideration – to smooth game development so developers can focus on making games.”

So hopefully, whenever PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Orbis or whatever it will be called is finally revealed, it will be much easier to develop for than the notoriously-pesky PlayStation 3.

The entire interview with Shuhei Yoshida can be found in the September, 2012 issue (#62) of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.